However, I thought that the title wasn’t that fitting to the entire story of the book. The title of the book is mentioned twice in the text, which were nice touches. The discussions about graffiti and the legality and creativity of it were very interesting to me, as a person who has no idea about the culture around graffiti. She learns that it’s okay to have new friends, and that it’s also okay to cut off fake friends. She learns to stand up for herself and look after herself. She starts to question her own values and ideas. She learns more about herself, her mothers and her friends. What I absolutely loved about this book, is how Julia grows as a person. You’re Welcome, Universe is a fun story that discusses the value of friendship, loyalty and acceptance in a light-hearted and humorous way. Some reviews mentioned that sign language influences Julia’s art and that sold me. I think graffiti is really beautiful and a very creative art – I’m aware that it’s usually done illegally but I’m talking about the art not where it is done. I was quite excited about You’re Welcome, Universe, because I’m quite a fan of graffiti. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.

She expected her art might get painted over by cops. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off-and showing Julia up in the process. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town.

Out in the ’burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up. Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural. Book cover: Julia sprays the title of the cover on a wall covered in graffiti

Chaotic good whitney gardner